The Clips claw their way back to within with a little under eight minutes remaining in the third quarter. They yield only two points to New Orleans on the Hornets’ first eight possessions of the second half. So with 7:40 remaining, they look to their best matchup on the offensive end: Sam Cassell against Chris Paul. Sam doesn’t have much quickness, but he’s as good as any point guard in the league at exploiting his size against a physically slight defender. Cassell kicks it over to the top left arc for Corey Maggette, then cuts to the far corner. Maggette dumps it into Tim Thomas off the mid-left post, but West does a nice job of nudging far enough off the key that Tim can’t do much. But then, Kaman offers Cassell a nice pin down screen on Paul at the right elbow. Paul eventually recovers, but Sam has already crossed into the lane with a left-handed drive. When Paul catches up, Sam spins back toward the lane, then backs Paul down a little more with a bump, enough to create space to spin back and elevate for a 12-footer. He hits it, and the Clips have their first lead in ages, 53-52, with 7:24 remaining in the third.

The Hornets immediately come down and run a high S/R with Paul and David West. Thomas and Cuttino Mobley trap Paul. Paul gets it over to West. Sam, who has Mo Peterson out on the arc, quickly picks up West at the top of the key. So the rotation looks good. But here’s the strange thing: For some reason, Corey is doubling low on Tyson Chandler, though the ball is nowhere near Chandler [the first time Chandler has been doubled off the ball since high school?]. This leaves Peja Stojakovic wide open precisely where Peja Stojakovic likes to be left wide open. West wastes no time. He darts the ball over to Stojakovic. New Orleans leads 55-52. The next time Peja misses a shot, the Hornets lead by 19.

Apart from Sam, Corey Maggette puts together a stellar offensive night. Like Wednesday, Corey for open looks and lanes rather than just looking to scratch his way to the line. Thomas feels it for a brief period in the third quarter against West, but West adjusts his close-out clock by, like, half a second and Tim isn’t heard much from after that. In general, the Hornets interior defenders don’t give up a whole lot, and Kaman never establishes good low position tonight against Chandler.

Sterling left his courtside seat Wednesday at the start of the third quarter, angry that Dunleavy was playing Quinton Ross, who has missed his last 19 shots, instead of rookie Al Thornton, who had a strong second quarter.

The Clippers pulled away in the third quarter in their most lopsided win of the season.

Sterling returned to his seat late in the fourth quarter.

With a healthy lineup that includes four legitimately offensive threats [say Cassell, Maggette, Brand, and Kaman], a couple of whom demand double-teams, a defensive stopper can work. But the Clippers don’t have a lot of offensive luxuries, and Ross – as good a defensive stretch as he’s had in recent weeks – is incapable of scoring right now. Having said that, Ross hasn’t played more than 24 minutes since New Years and has played over 30 minutes only once in the past 23 games. Personally, I think the whole starting lineup racket is overblown. The imperative stat is MPG. Given the team’s lack of depth, I don’t have a problem with Q. Ross playing 18 minutes per game, and his 18 minutes should probably come while Kevin Martin, Carmelo Anthony or Chris Paul is on the floor.

Dunleavy doesn’t have many good choices with his starting lineup. Forget about the Sterling Five: Cassell, Maggette, Thornton, Thomas, and Kaman. As currently configured, the Clippers need either Mobley or Ross on the floor against the opponent’s top backcourt or wing player. But if Dunleavy starts Mobley, then that leaves Knight and Ross as your second unit backcourt. So instead, Dunleavy pairs his best/worst offensive players who also happen to be his best/worst defensive players. When the Clips start this lineup, they’re 4-5. If you want better, then it might be worth looking at a starting five of Cassell, Mobley, Maggette, Thornton, and Kaman, saving Thomas for the second unit. You’d have to live with matchups like David West-Al Thornton, or Pau Gasol-Al Thornton, which is a lot to ask a rookie whose confidence you’re trying to build. But it’s worth considering.

Since the Clippers are his toy, DTS has every right to express a dissenting opinion on a coach’s choice of lineups. But I also subscribe to the tacit rule that once an owner empowers a coach to run the on-court proceedings, that owner should stick to presenting oversized Foundation checks to the afflicted and the aspirational. The nuttiest thing about Sterling’s tantrum here is that Dunleavy’s fondness for Quinton Ross isn’t news. It’s not as if Sterling is witnessing some impetuous act of defiance on Dunleavy’s part. Dunleavy’s preference for certain kinds of basketball players hasn’t changed at all since 2005. So if you’re not a Ross person, if you think defensive ballplayers are overvalued in the imagination of Mike Dunleavy, then you probably don’t want to give the guy $22M and a clipboard.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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Comments

Well, the good thing is - QRoss scoring drought is finally over! He scored a hefty 2 points. Gimme a 'HELL YEAH!"! I wish our defensive stud coulda stopped Peja in the 3rd though - the man singlehandedly bombed as into oblivion in the span of only a few minutes with something like 5 treys. Game over.

Yeah, the trick is that DTS is just reacting, as he's entitled to do, but he's not working it through to see that more Thornton/less Ross isn't a simple equation. There's the guard rotation you mention (Cassell/Ross, Knight/Mobley), and like you say Tim Thomas is an important factor.

In the last Hornets game, Thornton actually played better against West than Thomas did. But Thomas did a good job, or West was in a bit of a funk, and Thornton never got going last night.

You need Maggette and Cassell for the comeback. The trick is to respond after Peja hits that first shot--especially since the exact same thing happened the last time they played. In hindsight, I think the move would be to bring in Knight for Cassell (Knight did a good job on Paul), put Mobley on Peja, move Maggs over to Peterson, and tell Kaman to start getting shots no matter what. But that's in hindsight.

The interesting thing is that Mobley started the 2nd half this time. You're right about the ultimate importance of mpg. But I would go with door #2, start Mobley and Thornton and bring Thomas off the bench at this point, mainly to get Thornton experience against those guys and plenty of minutes while you still can, since EB will be back after the all-star break. At that point Thomas becomes EB's backup, and Thornton plays behind Maggs.

It's not my checkbook and I don't know what kind of a payout it would take to dimiss MD. But, sometimes you just need a change. I realize that Phil or Pop couldn't do anything with this crew and the injuries, but I'd sure like to start fresh next year with a few new faces and a new coach. And I don't mean L.Brown of M.Fratello or some guy that's already made the rounds. How about one of the many younger assistants who have put in time in the league and are ready for that next step. Bring on the new blood!!!!

The problem with this blog is the insistence that Q.Ross is actually a dominant defensive player, which he is not and never will be. People only think he is because DUNCEleavy has said he is.

I will ask again, if he was, wouldn't he receive more than one vote for all-NBA Defensive team in 2 years? Wouldn't we have read one quote from an opposition coach or player, saying that, that Q.Ross really gives us fits on he defensive end? Never has happened.

Wouldn't we see top offensive players have poor games against the Clips? Doesn't happen...

So now we have 1-22 and a grand total of 2 points in 120 minutes over 8 games. Horrible!!!!!

it will be interesting to see what happens this summer because i believe that Q Ross is a free agent. We know Dunleavy likes him and he could be had for cheap, but if Sterling tries to take control (something i don't think he should do even though i hate dunleavy), he may not want to pay for him.

The sad thing in all of this is that I think Q Ross is a good player. Yes, he's better on defense than on offense, but in college he could score and some games in the past he has proven to hit an open jumper, just not at all as of late, and i wonder how much all of this is actually getting to him. he's a good guy and a hard worker which this team needs (vs. tim thomas), but he's almost being a scapegoat as of late (i think thorton should play over him, but he's good for 20mpg).

I appreciate your fondness for hard work and being a good team member. However, a very wise person once told me that "nice isn't enough." Qross might be a good guy/hard worker; however, that hasn't translated into on-the-court performance. Moreover, "being nice" doesn't help the Clippers.
(And by the way, I disagree. He's not a good player. Bruce Bowen is a good defensive player. Chauncey Billups is a good defensive player. QRoss is not.)

QRoss might be one of our best defenders, but he is not a great one on one defender and he wouldn't make any other NBA squads. He just doesn't have the strength to defend the stronger small forwards nor does he have the lateral quickness to prevent dribble penetrations against fast guards.

If we have a healthy EB who demands a double team, then Q's offensive shortcomings would be more tolerable. But right now, with our offensively challenged lineup we're playing 4 on 5 on the offensive end, with Q's defenders sagging way off him, daring him to shoot. And when Q is teamed up with Brevin, we're playing 3 on 5.

A few years ago, when we lost Q Richardson to free agency, our season ticket rep tried to sweet talk us back into reupping by telling us that we have a new "Q" in training camp and we would love him. Well luckily Clipper season ticket representatives doesn't seem to last very long as we seem to get a new one every year. Otherwise, that rep would catch hell from most Clippers fans right now.

"Sterling left his courtside seat Wednesday at the start of the third quarter, angry that Dunleavy was playing Quinton Ross, who has missed his last 19 shots, instead of rookie Al Thornton, who had a strong second quarter.

The Clippers pulled away in the third quarter in their most lopsided win of the season.

Sterling returned to his seat late in the fourth quarter."

How did the Times reporter know that Q Ross was the source of Sterling's ire? Did he join the chorus of upset fans who moaned "NOOOO" when Q tried to shoot the techinical foul shot in order to get into the elusive scoring column?

Maybe he sidled up to the Times reporter and whispered, "I FRIGGING HATE Q ROSS, but don't quote me on that."

If that were the case, bravo Donald. You have earned the respect of Clippers fans everywhere.

The Clips could clear some cap room [though I urge them not to spend it on the Westside Rentals loon], and rid Staples of his once-endearing, but increasingly tiresome shtick. As I told Abbott this morning, I'd trade Darrell Bailey for a deli spread and three cubic liters of pre-jump-ball talc.

04/12/08 00:45:43

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